3DS Hardware, Software Trio Dominate Japanese Sales

It's a banner week for Nintendo 3DS hardware and software in Japan as Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri-G and major first-party titles help bring in the biggest sales for the system yet. Though the handheld hasn't left the top of the Japanese hardware sales chart since its drastic price cut in August, the 3DS debut of Capcom's phenomenally popular Monster Hunter series, Mario Kart 7, and Super Mario 3D Land pushed the portable to record numbers last week. The glasses-free 3D system sold 350,321 units last week, according to Media Create data posted by NeoGAF. Famitsu publisher Enterbrain previously reported 378,114 consoles sold, which would exceed the 3DS' launch high of 371,000-374,000 back in February. Those sales were likely boosted by the introduction of a new limited edition Monster Hunter 3G system bundle, and the special edition The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary 3DS sold on Nintendo's site. The contentious Circle Pad Pro accessory also released in Japan last week. PSP sales picked up last week by almost 12,000, selling 51,191 units and making it the second top-selling system. In third place, Wii saw its hardware numbers jump to 46,018, likely helped by its nine titles in the top 20 software chart -- more games on the list than any other console. Despite dropping from the number two spot to number four, PlayStation 3 moved a few thousand more systems this month to reach 44,661 sold. And while sales doubled for Xbox 360 to 3,211, that wasn't enough to overtake the DS line at the number six position with 6,630 systems sold. Below are the full sales rankings from Media Create for the week ended December 11, 2011. (The second chart lumps together sales of all models in a given line of hardware.)